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KDE: A Nice Tiling Environment and a Surprisingly Awesome DE

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Re: KDE: A Nice Tiling Environment and a Surprisingly Awesome DE

#151

Post by blindstitch »

anyfoo wrote: post #5

I must be one of the very few "hackerish" minded people that does not really get the appeal of tiling window managers. Even in the early days of Linux I meticulously arranged my overlapping windows in my X11R5 window manager. For example, there are some terminal windows or similar with running logs (or chats) at some of the edges, partially obscured by other windows who make better use of the space they cover. But th…

I half agree. I used the tiling window manager i3 for about a year, then gnome for the past two years. I really do like to move windows around and arrange them, it feels sort of tactile. I like the simple extensibility of i3 - even as a novice programmer it was possible for me to add new features and even build my own custom python bindings to add more nuanced controls. After a while i3 did become a sort of second brain and it felt like I could keep various domains of life separate very effectively when I was going to school reading and writing a lot, working part time at a job that required lots of terminal windows, and doing my leisure computing all on the same machine. Life has changed and I no longer have a need for balancing all that stuff at once and my window management needs are simpler, a handful of browser windows mostly.

When things get complex gnome is only about 50% as good as I need it to be to manage many things going on at once, though. Alt-tab application switching is a trash paradigm that is terrible no matter the OS.

Re: KDE: A Nice Tiling Environment and a Surprisingly Awesome DE

#152

Post by Symmetry »

> xmonad itself can’t run with modern Gnome

That's not really true. I use the gnome-flashback sesson and have an .desktop in ~/.config/autostart that runs xmonad --replace after I log in. It's true that logging in with a gnome session using xmonad as the WM isn't really an option any more but switching to xmonad after login continues to work great and is easier to set up than creating your own session ever was.

https://github.com/aclough/dotfiles/blob/master/setup-xmonad...

Re: KDE: A Nice Tiling Environment and a Surprisingly Awesome DE

#153

Post by stronglikedan »

laumars wrote: post #84
stormbrew wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everything you're describing in this reply just exhausts the hell out of my brain. You're describing an incredibly large amount of cognitive load you hold in your head all the time about where things are and what they mean and how much of them are visible. Tiling WM are largely about just not thinking that much about windows at all. They're visible or they're not, they occupy precise areas on your screen, and moving…

What you’re describing there is a little like the difference between those who like to have tidy desks vs those who don’t. You’ll often find that some who work in organised chaos still know exactly where everything is. Is their organisation worse than those who keep things tidy? From an outsiders perspective it might seem that way. But if they’re the only ones using that workspace then it doesn’t really matter. For s…

> You’ll often find that some who work in organised chaos still know exactly where everything is.

I don't know where things "go", but I know where I last put them!

> if they’re the only ones using that workspace then it doesn’t really matter

Yup, both methods have the exact same weakness - someone else moving something I need.

Of course, as you imply, everything should have it's place in a shared workspace.

Re: KDE: A Nice Tiling Environment and a Surprisingly Awesome DE

#154

Post by stronglikedan »

cam_l wrote: post #21
rodgerd wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me, the PowerToys tools are the gold standard here ( https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/powertoys/fancyzone... ), especially the Canvas mode: remember where I like my applications, and put them there, including whatever peculiar layout that I think is important.

Agree.. but if only we could stop windows from stealing focus.

lookin' at you, onedrive popup! so many half sentences submitted as email addresses

Re: KDE: A Nice Tiling Environment and a Surprisingly Awesome DE

#155

Post by Symbiote »

gurkendoktor wrote: post #104
maxloh wrote: post #96

KDE is ugly. It looks like software back then 2010s.

I've been meaning to try KDE several times, but I can never get over its look, or the silly names for everything, like "Kontact" and "Kdenlive". I wish there was a project like elementary OS, which takes the tech of GNOME and applies its own theme, naming etc., but for KDE/Qt. (I know, I know, elementary is doing way more than just that.) If something like this exists, I'd love to try it out.

KDE is probably the desktop environment with the widest range of themes.

(I like the "K" names. They usually mean the application fully integrates with KDE.)

Re: KDE: A Nice Tiling Environment and a Surprisingly Awesome DE

#156

Post by ArcMex »

I think TWMs work well for a mostly TUI-based workflow and DEs for a mostly GUI-based workflow.

I have both workflows on separate machines. Each works well for what I want to do and I am comfortable in either environment.

- Arch + DWM + St + LibreWolf (for scripting and networking) - Linux Mint + Cinnamon + Terminator + Web Apps (daily-driver at the office)

Re: KDE: A Nice Tiling Environment and a Surprisingly Awesome DE

#157

Post by el_isma »

smallerfish wrote: post #24

One of the first customizations I make to any new KDE setup is to a) map win+1-0 to switch to desktop N; b) map shift+win+1-0 to move window to desktop N; c) set up 10 virtual desktops. I then run everything full screened and avoid alt-tab. Browser on desktop 1, terminal on 2 (with its own splits), IDE on 3, etc. Over time I found that I could get rid of the panel entirely since I know where all running applications…

Does anybody know if there's a way to tag a window with win+num? I use several monitors and would like to do something like that but on the same virtual desktop.

So ideally I'd select a window, shift+win+1 to save that window, and win+1 to recall that window.

Re: KDE: A Nice Tiling Environment and a Surprisingly Awesome DE

#158

Post by brimble »

dsego wrote: post #133
brimble wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I'm still on Spectacle, which is basically the same thing. It's all I need as far as tiling-alike stuff goes and is the very first thing I install after Homebrew, on a new Mac. In fact, Homebrew, Spectacle, and using the Settings GUI to set my caps lock to an extra ctrl, is the entirety of my new-Mac setup routine, as far as stuff that never varies. I've tried "real" tiling WMs on Linux and don't really get it.…

It seems that spectacle is not being actively maintained anymore.

I'll stop doing `brew install spectacle` and look for something else when it stops working :-)

M1 Mac, but I'm still on Big Sur. Maybe Monterey breaks it. Guess I'll find out soonish.

I'm reluctant to change a piece of software that's never given me so much as a hiccup in years of use, until I have to.

Re: KDE: A Nice Tiling Environment and a Surprisingly Awesome DE

#159

Post by eternityforest »

stronglikedan wrote: post #153
laumars wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What you’re describing there is a little like the difference between those who like to have tidy desks vs those who don’t. You’ll often find that some who work in organised chaos still know exactly where everything is. Is their organisation worse than those who keep things tidy? From an outsiders perspective it might seem that way. But if they’re the only ones using that workspace then it doesn’t really matter. For s…

> You’ll often find that some who work in organised chaos still know exactly where everything is. I don't know where things "go", but I know where I last put them! > if they’re the only ones using that workspace then it doesn’t really matter Yup, both methods have the exact same weakness - someone else moving something I need. Of course, as you imply, everything should have it's place in a shared workspace.

I never have any idea at all where I last put things. I just remember 5 to 30 minutes ago I had something... and that's all I know.

I've pretty much always relied on full searches of my entire surroundings, or very long term plans with labels and everything, since remembering a new location takes active effort or weeks of time, I don't just see things and passively remember where they were.

The desktop completely rearranging itself randomly doesn't even bother me, as long as I can quickly scan the task bar, since I basically never use Windows any way other than maximized.

Re: KDE: A Nice Tiling Environment and a Surprisingly Awesome DE

#160

Post by whalesalad »

selectodude wrote: post #42
whalesalad wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is all I need. I use an app on macOS called sizeup that let's me do this. I can center a window for reading text on my larger display. Fullscreen a window without using the actual native full screen on macOS. Snap left, snap right, up down etc. It can also keep track of hardware profiles, so windows will restore to their bigger sizes and positions when I plug my laptop into a display. https://s3.whalesalad.com/i…

Am I the only person left who still uses Expose? I feel like Apple is going to kill it off, they already rolled it into "Mission Control" and removed all the keybindings.

I really dislike the full screen on macOS. I wish the little green balls would maximize, not full-screen. Even on modern hardware, the transition between spaces is a waste of time and resources. I much prefer immediately switching to an open application.
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